


Feel my cape. Do you know what it's made out of? Boyfriend material.

by potatopatch



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: BeruEre, M/M, Superhero!AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-14
Updated: 2017-06-14
Packaged: 2018-11-13 23:35:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11195808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/potatopatch/pseuds/potatopatch
Summary: Being a superhero was hard.But not for the reasons people think, you know, the stuff gathered from comics and movies. Leading a double life? Not so bad, given his current unemployment. Maintaining a secret identity? Mikasa and Armin already knew. Hell, the two helped on a regular basis and were smart enough to avoid trouble coming a mile away. Protecting your love interest? Never been an issue. Which may be due to the fact his romantic history was nonexistent, but let’s not get into specifics.---Superhero!AU where they have powers that 100% contradict their personalities, BeruEre. I'm sorry about the title.





	Feel my cape. Do you know what it's made out of? Boyfriend material.

Being a superhero was hard.

But not for the reasons people think, you know, the stuff gathered from comics and movies. Leading a double life? Not so bad, given his current unemployment. Maintaining a secret identity? Mikasa and Armin already knew. Hell, the two helped on a regular basis and were smart enough to avoid trouble coming a mile away. Protecting your love interest? Never been an issue. Which may be due to the fact his romantic history was nonexistent, but let’s not get into specifics.

What was hard, however, was getting the public to first take him seriously. Especially considering the extent of his powers was limited to producing force fields. Powerful, nearly in-penetrable force fields… but still, force fields. Not nearly as exciting as flying or super strength. What are you gonna do? Save us from a bee sting?

Thankfully people were quick to reconsider after a giant mecha tank began rampaging the city, and Eren’s natural reaction was to run, screeching, head-first through like a human bullet. And the mild concussion he received? Totally worth it.

And while most of his adventures haven’t been nearly as exciting since then, limited to petty thieves, wannabe-villains, and other small fry, getting calls for bizarre scenarios wasn’t entirely unusual.  
But in all of Eren’s experience as hero, being called to investigate a crime at a local fast food joint was certainly first.

“Chief Ackerman,” Eren calls. Addressing his sister so formally never stopped being awkward, but it was a necessary evil in order to keep his identity a secret. If anybody else, he’d also add it was for their protection as well. 

But this was Mikasa.

If that didn’t tell you enough, just last week, a group of bank robbers surrendered after learning she was on her way to the crime scene.

“Rouge Titan,” Mikasa replies smoothly.

“So,” he begins, trying to squint pass the circling of red and blue lights. “What exactly am I walking into here?”

“Witnesses say a man — early twenties, tall — walked in at around five pm before a small explosion occurred.”

Eren eyed the chunks of broken glass on the east side of the building.

“Any casualties?”

“Some with minor injuries but that’s the extent of it. They’re already being treated.”

“WcDonalds seems like a strange place to be starting trouble. What, did someone decide to throw a fit because their order came out wrong?”

Mikasa shakes her head. “I don’t think it was intentional.”

“No?”

“No,” She confirms. “He hasn’t taken any hostages, made any threats or demands. In fact, he hasn’t said a single word to any of my workers.”

Eren quickly caught on. “You think he has powers?”

Mikasa lifts a shoulder. “It’s a possibility. They could have manifested at the time of the crime, and his unresponsiveness may be caused by shock.”

Eren nods. He was fortunate enough to learn about his powers a couples years back, during a quiet afternoon, where nobody was around. Others? Not always so lucky. It wasn’t that the people of Shiganshina were necessary against superheroes. They were agreeable enough whenever a problem, too big for the police to handle, arose. But Eren often heard stories about some poor sap accidently setting a building on fire, because their landlord upped their rent, and being carted off by the Sina Organization, never to be heard from again. _To be fixed_. As though their abilities were some deadly disease.

It made him sick to his stomach.

She tilts her head. “Given Shiganshina’s current… viewpoint on powers, it’d be good if someone with similar abilities went in there and tried to calm him down. Assure him that my team have done their best to preserve his anonymity, and will continue to until this blows over.”

A surge of determination floods him.

“I’m on it.”

Before Eren passes, a hand catches his shoulder.

“Be careful.”

He grins.

“Always am.”

—-

The first thing Eren learned after entering the superhero gig was to fake confidence, always.

Never show hesitation. Not even once. Because while Eren depended on that confidence to intimidate bad guys and get through his duties, others depended on it as well. 

People, especially large groups, naturally became skittish when a crisis arose. And as weird as it was for a twenty-year-old, to order around people twice his age, when he still got solicitors asking to speak with his mother, well, he learned very quickly that fewer casualties occurred this way.

Between self-consciousness and protecting others, he chose the latter any day.  
So when Eren enters through the transparent double doors and announces his title — “At ease. I’m the Rouge Titan and I’m here to help.” — He ignores the tiny voice inside his head that whispers he’s never done something like this before.

The silence he’s met with does. Not. Help.

He scans the room, remembering Mikasa’s description of the man, and sees nobody. Just abandoned food, debris, and chairs knocked over.

“Hello?” Eren calls.

Out of the corner of his eye, Eren spots a mop of black hair slowly rising behind the cashier counter, peeking out at him. A bit comedic, but Eren somehow finds the action endearing. 

And he has… really nice eyes…

Focus.

Eren lifts a hand and tries to smile as best he could underneath the domino mask. 

“Hi!”

A chunk of ceiling tile drops somewhere behind him.

The man doesn’t respond, continuing to stare at him. When Eren takes a step towards the man’s location, the head begins to sink back down behind the counter.

“No, wait!” Eren shouts. The man pauses. “It’s okay. Like I said, I’m here to help. I understand what you’re going through right now. Mi- Chief Ackerman. The woman you heard outside? She’s going to do everything she can to help preserve your identity.”

He takes another couple of steps forward.

“But we need to remove you from this area. I don’t want to alarm you, but— you’ve heard of Sina, right? That stupid organization that claims to re-habilitate people who have powers,” Eren winces, fearing the stranger would withdraw from the hostility in his tone. Thankfully, the stranger’s head rises instead, showing his face more fully and—

Oh, uh, wow.

Eren’s brain blanks for a moment, before he catches his beat again. 

“We only have a day to make a case that none of this was intentional. Before they try to cart you away. But I swear we will do everything in our power to prevent that from happening.”

Standing in front of the registers, Eren waits for a beat. Then another.

Slowly, the stranger fully emerges from behind the counter, and shit, the reports weren’t kidding when they said he was tall. He clearly towers over Eren forcing him to look up. It would almost make his cowering behind the counter seem pathetic if he wasn’t so—

Eren shoves those thoughts straight out of his head, pasting a wide smile across his face. 

“I’m the Rouge Titan,” Oh fuck, wait, hadn’t he already said that— “You are…?”

The stranger doesn’t answer. He looks off to the side, appearing almost… embarrassed?

“Can… you not speak?” Eren prompts.

Long fingers fold together, beginning to fidget nervously.

“Okay. That’s okay. We’ll get this figured out.” A sprinkle of dust collects on his shoulders. “If you would just follow me-”

_“LOOK OUT!”_

At least that’s what Eren thinks is said if the pitch wasn’t 3000 hertz too high, and he wasn’t punched through the air like a truck just hit him.

Eren barely manages to form a protection around his body before he collides into the beverage machines, causing an eruption of drinks. Although his force field cushions the worst of the impact, it’s not enough to stop him from slumping to wet floor, groaning pathetically.

He hears the patter of feet before panicked hands quickly usher him away from the mess, patting his body for injuries Eren suspected, the other likely didn’t know how to treat.

The stranger sounds like he’s trying to apologize, but the words are smothered by his closed lips, so all that comes out is a bunch of incomprehensible muffling.

Eren soon feels the hands leave him, scrambling for something on the floor. Behind the stranger, Eren spots the area that he previously stood covered with the remains of a collapse ceiling.

A pale yellow napkin is shoved in his face and he blinks to focus on the messy writing. The words ‘IM SO SORRY’ scrawled across it in bock letters.

“It’s cool,” Eren slurs. He groans as he eases up slowly, embarrassed but thankful when the stranger assists him. “Managed to get a protection up just in time.” God, he hoped his ribs weren’t broken.

After assuring that Eren wouldn’t collapse again, the stranger begins to write another message, hand trembling. Eren dimly notes the pile of napkins littering the stranger’s lap.

A couple minutes later, the stranger presents Eren with his second note.

‘I DON’T KNOW WHAT’S WRONG WITH ME.’

“Nothing,” Eren assures. He massages his left shoulder. “I know this is all completely new and scary. It’ll take some time, but I promise you’ll be able to control it.”

The thoughts suddenly click and Eren begins to laugh. He quickly reminded this is terrible idea after shots of pain arises from his ribs. The stranger looks both scared and concerned.

“Sorry, sorry,” He wheezes. “I just got it now. That’s why you couldn’t tell me your name earlier? ‘Cause of your powers?”

The stranger gives a slow nod, and Eren begins to snicker again, because this whole scenario is so bizarre. The powers didn’t fit this obviously quiet man at all, and yet it’s all terribly adorable, and he might have a concussion.

“Sooo.” Eren drawls, after catching his breath. “What is your name?”

A blink. Then the stranger begins to slowly write. Eren notes the man’s hand is shaking less now.

Once finished, he presents the napkin to Eren.

‘BERTHOLDT’

“Ber-tholdt?” He tests the name out.

A nod.

“Huh,” Eren looks up. “Bertholdt. Beerthhoolldt. Bertholdddttt,” He laughs and grins widely. “Well, I know the circumstances are kind of fucked, but it’s awesome to meet you.”

If Eren was more lucid, he’d be mortified by his own behavior, and complete lack of professionalism. But the tentative smile that grows on the stranger’s — Bertholdt’s — face somehow makes the embarrassment worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> Decided to edit and re-upload a drabble I did a long time ago. It was for a request a friend made asking for a Beruere Superhero!AU. For those curious, Eren’s power is producing force fields (think Violet from The Incredible), while Bertholdt’s power is sonic screaming. Also, I don’t know jack about frequency. If I come up with a better plot, I might add some more to this AU, but for now, it's stand-alone.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
